In the modern-day world, the earth has a total population of about 7.9 billion. The most crucial part about maintaining such a human population of this massive scale is the requirement of a proper power source. The world has been running majorly on fossil fuel for a long time and it has its ups and downs. The most disadvantageous prospects of such energy resources are that they are not very environment-friendly and are available in a limited quantity like wind or solar energy. Once the world runs out of such resources, there would be no more available.
This is where the modern use of non-conventional energy resources comes into action. Non-conventional energy resources are renewable processes of energy generation, they will never run out and are environment-friendly. The energy produced by Solar, Wind, Hydro, Geothermal Heat and Biomass is essential parts of non-conventional energy. One of the most popular and widely used non-conventional energy around the globe is Solar Energy, and it works as a replacement to popular conventional methods.
Solar Energy and its booming popularity
Solar, Wind and Hydel are some popular energy sources that tend to replace the use of conventional energy resources. Among them, solar energy is quite popular if we evaluate its use from a practical standpoint. Solar energy is a massive source of power for many local and industry-based necessities. It carries the potential to power homes and factories, which makes it a versatile option. Also, out of the three mentioned earlier, the availability of Solar energy is much more frequent and stable.
Country-Based Usage of Solar Energy [With Statistics]
According to the reports published by Ember, Wind and Solar power are accounted to produce about 10 percent of global electricity in the first six months of the year 2020. This is a five percent leap in the statistics from 5 years ago.
If we look at some of the major countries like the U.S.A, it had a total of 64.2 GW of installed solar, which was enough to power about 12.3 million American residents’ homes in the year 2018. As of the same year, Solar energy accounted for about 1.6% of total U.S electricity generation, which raised to 2.3% in 2020.
India is the 3rd largest consumer of electricity in the world with a population of about 1.38 billion. India is also the third-largest producer of renewable energy. The total solar energy capacity of all the countries in the world is accounted for at 714,000 megawatts in 2020, with India having above 39,000 megawatts alone.
The United Kingdom is also a massive user of Solar energy. It reported an annual generation of about 13 TWh in 2020, which was about 4.1% of the United Kingdom’s electricity consumption of the said year.
As the worldwide stats go, the use of Solar energy to meet energy requirements is not massive as compared to fossil fuel, but is rapidly improving. With the limited amount of fossil fuels, Solar energy’s versatile uses and unlimited power will surely make it a more preferred option in the coming future.
Here are some of the uses of Solar energy mentioned below:
- Solar Electric Power Generation
- Solar Thermal Power Generation
- Solar Pumping
- Solar Furnaces
- Solar drying of agricultural products
- Solar heating of buildings
- Solar Water Heating
- Solar Green Houses
- Solar Cooking
- Solar distillation
Why Choose Solar Energy?
There are plenty of reasons to start the use of Solar energy. Here are some vital ones that you should know if you are thinking about using this kind of power source.
1) Unlimited Power Source
As long as the Sun is there, you don’t have to worry about Solar energy running out. Out of all the other non-conventional energy sources, Solar energy is the most available one.
2) Cheap to use
The solar power system will start saving you tons of money in electricity bills in the long run. It is a free source of energy, unburdened by any monopolistic schemes. Solar has been stated to be ‘the cheapest electricity in history’ by IEA.
3) Environment-Friendly
Unlike most conventional energy sources, Solar and other non-conventional energy sources cause no harm to nature and the environment. It is popularly called a green source of energy. Using solar energy massively reduces the carbon footprints of the world. Solar power only needs clean water to function and nothing else.
4) Reliability
The energy accumulated and produced by the solar panels on your roof becomes domestic. This causes you, the consumer, to stay in control over your own energy usage and bills. The solar power systems are very durable, which essentially decreases the service interruption.
5) Better Grid Security
The wide usage of Solar power will result in lesser blackouts. For example, households having solar cells installed in the UK work as small power plants. Consumers can export electricity back to the grid and can get paid for it.
These were some of the many advantages of using Solar energy. And with the worldwide stats and usability, there’s no denying that Solar energy is a booming power source and will soon be used more commonly. People have started moving to cleaner alternatives like switching to electric cars instead of fuel, you can read more about electric vehicles here.
